I am all for piracy. I currently study in Ukraine and cannot in any way attain a real copy of any game. All games in this country even in the stores is pirated. Without PIRATE BAY I would'nt be able to play games 8 out of the 12 months that I am in School overseas. Maybe It should be a big deal in U.S but here in parts of Europe its essential The decision for Blizzard to remove LAN is *****ic. Sorry for harsh words, but how will I ever be able to have a LAN party when there isnt internet present. Honestly I dont believe Blizzard will lose any money if they offered lan support for Starcraft 2. Look at Starcraft 1 it was a huge success and has many, many fans and will even have many more new fans thanks to the appealing new graphics and game design. Anyway Blizzard can count on me to fly back to U.S if I have to just to buy a copy of the game that I group up with when I was young.

Silly. A pirate will net even give two shits on the whole issue and make, or wait for someone to make, a bnet crack that enable lan play. Blizzard is just being lazy here and I guess, what some other poster wrote, having ulterior motives behind this move, be it data collecting or whatever. It's about control from Blizzards side, screw the customer. Blizzard used to be a loved developer, nowadays who knows. I think WoW made them greedy sobs, but thats me. I know I wont buy into this whole mess and I will wait for some geek to program a bnet crack and give the hypotetical 'finger' to whatever pea-brained ***** that made this decision.

Having Starcraft 2 being sold at S$109 here in Singapore, 44 pounds in Britain, and around 60-70 US$ in North America has its own justifications, based on the logic of business, profiteering in order to further invest in future technologies, capital and labour just for the sake of development so that they will be able to compete and hopefully gain monopolistic power in the long run. That is the way business works. When demand is high, you set your prices high up there. The CEO of Activision, Bobby Kotick, could not have done a better job at that.

What they are failing to realise however, is that this move is not without its moral consequences. Setting prices up high at way past the typical market price for games like the same thing which they did to Modern Warfare 2 is going to seriously impact consumer decision-making. For that much money, one would rather buy 2 or 3 different games which will give more bang per buck in the long run. Furthermore, what Blizzard and Activision have ultimately done is indirectly imprecate and burden themselves with accusations of greed which will surely tarnish their reputation in the long run. Already, we have 250000 signatures on a Starcraft 2 boycott site, and hundreds of thousands for other Activision products, showing that when a company acts way too far in imposing overtly high prices, the consumers themselves do have the power to oppose by forming a rally or coalition in an act of dissent against such "bear marketing".

S$109 may not seem big in absolute terms, surely a number that almost anyone above the poverty line can afford, but for that much money to pay for a single game, think of the opportunity cost lost, and how much would have been better used for that amount of money, and the psychological impact of having spent that much knowing this. Consumers probably will not know this until they have been put into the boots of guilt. Furthermore, if there another moral issue involved, this includes responsibility for being part of propagating the greed of Activision by feeding them with raw, green cash which will in turn perpetuate their unrelentless incentive for profits. Greed is now disguised as business as an accepted ordinary jargon of mundane life, at least through the adage, or the potentially brain-washing meme that: "taking something from a man is theft, but taking something from a thousand individuals is the logic of business." Think about that that aphorism before making such a purchase; you will, in the very end, fall into the abyss and trap of not just continuing to reinforce their lack of repentence for setting prices low, but also be part of the grand (immoral) scheme of feeding the rich, and making consumers lose utility in the long run.

Until they lower prices to a reasonable S$50-70 or so, people are just going to oppose this movement covertly or overtly. Openly through direct disapproval or disapprobation or boycott. Covertly through piracy, other illegal means, or simply by passive resistance by not making a purchasal. Capitalism might have made revolutionary breakthroughs in the past century or so, but it is certainly not without its vices. And for those vices, people will continue to resist. Perhaps if Activision and Blizzard had both understood the psychology of consumers beyond a linear, and overly simplistic model of hedonism and pure rationalism, this issue might not have arised in the first place. Now comes the scapegoating for piracy in an attempt to cover their butts using already dominant and prevalent property rights to justify their ability to reduce unemployment, lead to economical growth at the national or global level, at the cost of civil rights.

I have already signed up for boycotts against Activision and Blizzard. World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2 has shown what kind of companies you all are, tying people to their chairs through an addictive series of perks, leveling, and means of instant gratification in an attempt to get them to pay more and play more at the cost of their spiritual and intellectual development. Keeping them in the state of being obsequious and heedlessly nodding their heads in unison to demand more from you all while being in the chains of hapless addiction. Do I sense a new cyber-bourgeois and cyber-proletariat forming from the web of post-modernity? For those who are reading this, lift up your heads and starting thinking straight already: these are not companies that are going to be sustainable in the long run; neither are they the ones which we may prefer in the future if this trend keeps on.

I have been a Blizzard fan for over a decade, and this is the the absolute WORST ****ING DECISION to exclude lan. The company has profited immensly from WoW, and yet it still will exclude a seemingly commonsense feature? I am not purchasing this game, any other Blizzard product, and I have totally lost faith in one of my favorite companys.

I was really waiting for this game but without lan the expectation is over and I will not buy it!!
The only reason for me to play RTS games is the LAN mode. If Blizzard stays on this path, they will end it alone.

Blizzard has always been a company that created engaging content for all video game enthusiasts. However, lately the decision making process at Blizzard has been tainted by the thoughts of the second head that it grew after the merger.

One of the most fond memories I have of playing Blizzard's games is of Diablo one. I still get chills in my spine as remembered the many times I had to defend my thirteen year old son from impending doom.

The fact that we can no longer adventure together makes me sad and irate. You see we only have a wireless connection and it does not allow us to both connect at the same time.

I don't buy the piracy angle for not providing such an essential component of a multiplayer game. The real culprit here is the ability to create a realm where you the game company can control, watch over our shoulders then turn around an invade our lives with more advertisements, third party offers, crappy
byproducts derived not to provide additional enjoyment but to obtain possession of my hard earned cash.

I guess Blizzard doesn't care about the many battles that have been fought in the sanctity of our homes behind a firewall and away from their prying eyes. Even if the tools (Game) used to wage war were purchased at a local retailer with the money we earned with sweat and blood. The same money that provided Blizzard with an enviable position within the game development companies.

To me, this is a grim reminder that for the countless Blizzard games that we purchased (legally and honestly) the price for our loyalty came down to a basic component called "piracy".

Well I will remember the Pirates next time a new Blizzard game get's released and rest assured that my loot will be well guarded. So say goodbye to a (former loyal customer) and his son. We will wage war on some other front it just won't be on battle net or using your tools.

uhm who said that nobody would download this game illegally without LAN function? somebody would still download cause mods still exist for offline play. even if it is not against humans. and sorry, not a programmer here but somebody is working for a LAN crack using i think it was called a battle.net emulator so whats the reason for not downloading? i thought ra3 was the same... anyways blizzard just ruined the whole international gaming scene by introducing not the random hit mechanic but the random lag mechanic. itll be laughable to see the announcers excitedly reporting the game events then it suddenly lags and then underdog takes the lag as a silver lining then gg.

the only problem with the idea is that it blows the idea of buying sc for the whole fam. my dad got sc and later i decited it looked cool and under the impression that since its on the fams cpu that the family could play (like comand and concer oblivion .etc) even if limited to off line play. ...........but no my dad purchesed it hts his property and if we all want to play ill have to go blow a fue hundred bucks sad it dosent verify the game to the cpu cerial# insted.

I'm amazed at the amount of people crying about the price of this game. Saying it should cost the same as a DVD??? This game has been in developement for over a decade! New games for the Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, AND PC cost the same amount as SC2!

It's CLEARLY a well made game. Obviously years of work have gone into it, and in this day and age, it's perfectly acceptable to require an internet connection and one copy of the game per individual to set up a "LAN". Times are changing people. God forbig you're required to actually PAY for a game right?

Yes, it sucks for a few random groups of people who want to LAN with one copy of the game. Dad and Son each have a cpu in the house and want to play aginst each other, boo hoo. You're in the military and don't have an internet connection overseas? OH NOES

Blizzard isn't catering to the one-off minorities of people who don't have a consistent internet connection. They know who their target audience is, and like it or not, they know how to make a high quality game that fits the price they're selling it for.

It's NOT overpriced. Taking away the option for LAN games was a GREAT decision, and sign as many boycott petitions as you want.. 250,000 "signatures" is a drop in a bucket when this company has over 10 million monthly subcribers to WoW, and over 10 million copies of SC1 sold. You're not going to make a difference and frankly the game is better off without you people in it

The name is "Microsloth" in game. Add me if you like. Love me or hate me, you decide, but my opinion is what it is.

Bottom line is if you have legit copies of the game you can play whoever you want. If you have two legit copies of SC2 & wanna play someone, guess what you can play. Seriously now the only ppl that are butt hurt over this are ppl who were going to download the game. Blizzard gave them a slap to the face.
Price: You're not paying any more for this game then you are for a brand new PS3/Xbox game. IMO you're getting a much better game with much more replay value then even the best console games. So it's a well purchased item. You can't expect the greatest PC gaming company to lower their costs to the price of a new DVD. You want to play the greatest PC games, you're gonna have to make a sacrifice.

its all moot anyhow, you need a Battle.net account and have to register the CD-key to play the game anyhow. so piracy is almost virtually out of the question, even to enable offline mode you need to first authenticate with battle.net...I think blizzard is either being lazy or trying to boost margin quotas of Battle.net users online, for the stats they show stockholders and execs on how successful their new 'social community' is in this age of facebooks and blogs. eh...pissed either way.

i know this is kinda a late subject but im just trying to pass the news around to hopefully wake some
people up....

the reason they removed lan play is to sell ad space on BNET ... its even in the terms of use if u didnt read
it closely.... this is actually one of the few games i refuse to buy on principal cuz even on top of that there
is also another thing that is in the terms of use that says any mods you create using their custom map
editor becomes their property and they retain all rights to it.... aka they want to make sure if another DOTA
phenomenon happens that they get to cash in on that as well....

heck... in the future they prolly will want to charge everyone 5 dollars a month to use their bnet features or
you get it free if you have a wow account to try and get more ppl paying per month bcuz of that : /

this will not help piracy... Many people have already downloaded cracked versions of the game, and LAN emulations and mods have already been created or at least being created. I am not a blizzard fan, but I am a starcraft fan. That move actually deter me from buying the game completely. I mean, me and my friends use to play warcraft 3 LAN in our appartments, which was AWESOME! and we had limited or no internet. So, if I have friends over, well all have to be online to play LAN?
Blizzard makes good games, but they move very stupidly with their ideas.
I agree with many people's statements. Blizzard should stop making games completely and start making movies (their movies and stories are awesome).

Justin's right
but how bout the fact that the guest keys only last for 7hrs
and afterwards
every person that you play with online must buy the game
Blizzard's also grabbing money with piracy as an excuse